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The figures will vary from the real amount of cases due to the limits to testing capacities in some countries and doubts as to whether authorities in China and Iran have fully recorded their outbreaks. Both have denied allegations of cover ups.

Several European countries that went into lockdown have begun easing restrictions.

Italy, which once served as the continent’s epicentre, has announced that factories, construction sites and wholesale supply businesses can resume activity when safety measures are implemented.

Parks and gardens will reopen next month, with funerals, sports training and visits to relatives in the same region also allowed.

Later, stores and museums will open and restaurants, cafes and salons will resume business in June if all goes well.

Spain has allowed children to leave the house while France is due to present a plan to ease restrictions and Germany has allowed smaller shops to reopen.

The UK remains under lockdown, and Boris Johnson – the first world leader known to have contracted the virus – said it was too early to ease up and risk a second outbreak.

“I know there will be many people looking at our apparent success, and beginning to wonder whether now is the time to go easy on those social distancing measures,” he said, adding a big second wave would bring about “economic disaster”.

The dispute over China’s handling of early stage of the coronavirus outbreak continues.

President Donald Trump has said he would suspend funding of the World Health Organization (WHO) which he says has been biased in favour of China. Australia, meanwhile, has suggested an independent inquiry into how the virus spread should be launched.

The WHO has said it needed to work with China.

China denies accusations it suppressed information about the outbreak, allowing it to spread wider than it might have, and has rejected the plan for an inquiry.